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Smita Sharma is a photojournalist based out of New York and Calcutta. She has spent over a year documenting the distressing stories of rape survivors in India (Picture: Smita Sharma / Redux)

In a society where women are often blamed even if they’re a victim, removing the badge of shame attached to a rape survivor seems near impossible.

Yet one woman is attempting to do just that by photographing survivors of rape to remind us that they’re human too.

Smita Sharma, a photojournalist based out of New York and Calcutta, has spent over a year documenting the distressing stories of rape survivors in India.

Life after rape

The 35-year-old photographer said she came up with the idea to photograph women and girls, who were victims of sexual assault, because she became frustrated by the way media reported the crime.

Smita told Metro.co.uk: ‘I was very curious about the families and the women because no one ever gives them a voice. As a woman, I wanted to find out how they are feeling and there was no option for me to understand that.

Shabina, 20 years old

This is Shabina at her house near Kolkata. Shabina was raped eight years ago by a man from her community. Her family and neighbors then forced her to marry him. As a result of the rape, she gave birth to a son, Ali.

She was not accepted as a wife by her perpetrator. A year after the incident, her family lodged a police complaint and took the perpetrator to court.

Shabina makes puffed rice for a living, working up to 16 hours a day and earns Rs.400 (£4.90) a week (Picture: Smita Sharma / Redux)

‘Also, this issue has been very close to my heart because when I was 18, I was molested by a college professor and when I spoke up, I was shut down and called a spoiled child. That pain was buried inside me for a very long time.’

‘After my cousin was molested in December 2010 at her school, I felt a lot of anger that someone needed to do something. I could never see any photographer or journalist working on it. There were always reports about it but it was not about the people.’

They are just like you and me’

With help from small local non-profit organisations, health workers and lawyers, Smita started meeting with survivors in December 2014.

She said: ‘It was difficult, breaking the ice with them because they are already wounded. I didn’t want to interrupt or bother them but I also needed to tell them why this was important and tell them that their story could help inspire others to speak out’.

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Smita hopes her compelling project will help to put faces to the horrific stories many of us hear about.

Rani, 15 years old

This is Rani. She is being escorted into the District Court of Rajmahal in Jharkhand for her testimony by a woman police constable. Rani was working at a mango orchard where she was raped by a man who used to frequent the orchard.

She was then threatened to remain silent. Her silence encouraged the man to rape her again. Finally, Rani spoke up and informed her family who then lodged a police complaint. (Picture: Smita Sharma / Redux)

The victims

Describing one six-year-old victim who could not be photographed because she was murdered, Smita said: ‘After she was murdered, I met with her entire family. I had the camera in my hand and her mum was explaining what happened that very evening.

‘She turned to me and said, “If he had to rape her, he could have raped her but why did he have to kill her?” and then she looked at me and said “Today at least my daughter would have been alive.

“He didn’t even have that much decency to cover her body. Her arms were broken and she had marks on her body”

Smita said she was heartbroken when she heard this and didn’t know how to react, adding: ‘I felt like crying but I could not cry in front of her. These things are really difficult’.

In 2014, 36,735 rapes were committed and nearly 338,000 crimes against women were reported, according to India’s National Crime Records Bureau data, but the actual number is likely to be much higher.

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One particular incident in Delhi – the gang-rape of Jyoti Singh – rocked the country and instigated some changes in Indian law yet Smita said the ‘root problem’ needs to be addressed.

‘People have become more cautious. Earlier people wouldn’t want to even accept rapes were happening.

‘But it’s almost like everyone asks their daughters to be careful but no one thinks about the root problem. Why are men like this? Men are not born like that. So where do they go wrong?’

Pinky, 12 years old

This is Pinky. Pinky had gone to see a wedding procession in her neighbourhood when she met a female neighbour who invited Pinky to her home. The woman gagged Pinky and handed her over to her brother-in-law. Pinky was then raped.

The couple threatened Pinky with murder and asked her to remain silent. A week later, Pinky informed her parents who reported the case to the police. (Picture: Smita Sharma / Redux)

Action

Last month, Smita launched an online fundraising campaign to finance the project which she has been funding mainly with her own money.

On it, she writes that each survivor she met with all asked her the same question: ‘Why is this our fault? Why are we being harassed, ostracised and victimized?’

She adds that her ‘goal’ is to ‘give voice to the survivors who are so often treated as living corpses, shamed and ostracised for the remainder of their lives’ and says that it is important to stand with them and change this perception.

The campaign has managed to raise over $21,000 (£14,700) of a pledge of $18,000 (£12,600).

With her stretch goal of $30,000, Smita plans to produce a multimedia film, which is going to be projected on a screen in villages, schools and universities.

She will also use the money to buy bicycles and distribute it to girls who drop out of schools out of fear of sexual assault.

She said: ‘Once girls go to middle school, it’s very far away and everyday they have to walk. That is when they are very vulnerable, many girls get kidnapped and are trafficked and this is very common in villages.’

Sister Shanti

Sister Shanti, principal of the Convent of Jesus and Mary High School at Ranaghat town in West Bengal, breaks down after the gang-rape of her colleague, a 72 year old nun.

Sister Shanti was tied up in a room while her colleague, Sister Superior, who tried to prevent the group of men from robbing the school’s office, was dragged into another room and repeatedly raped by the gang.

The perpetrators later also inserted foreign objects into her genitals to hurt her (Picture: Smita Sharma / Redux)